ProGUI Update, Graph Library and Experimental V2

[PrincieD]

Hi guys, it's been a while!

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown (and now being unemployed) I've decided to release some improvements to ProGUI (and reduce the price to just 20EUR - full source) which I've been meaning to do for a while.
The Gold package now also includes the source code to V2 which is experimental (and buggy) however is able to divert rendering of common controls (PureBasic gadgets) directly on to a PanelEx page's buffer by hooking certain API calls.
Also included in the package is a new fully featured Graph library which features line graphs, bar charts, density plots, scrolling, zooming, saving, printing, high DPI and more. There are 2 versions of the Graph library, version one is slightly older and works with the ProGUI V1.40 source. Version 2 is integrated into the ProGUI V2 source and has improved zooming and scrolling animations.

The new examples can be downloaded here: http://www.progui.co.uk/downloads/ProGU ... amples.zip





Cheers!

Chris.

[wombats]

Nice to see you back on the forum! Sorry to hear about your employment situation.

The new features look great. ProGUI, despite some bugs, is a fantastic library.

[X0r]

Hey Chris,

sorry to read that. On the other hand, it is great to see you back working on ProGUI. I am using your library commercially for battleWarden (https://battlewarden.net/) and have been experiencing a few issues. For instance, setting the front color of the menu items does not work. Also, the lib is not DPI aware, and thus I had to implement my own fixes. Would have been great if you had fixed these bugs first.

[PrincieD]

Nice to see you back on the forum! Sorry to hear about your employment situation.

The new features look great. ProGUI, despite some bugs, is a fantastic library.

Thanks wombats

Hey Chris,

sorry to read that. On the other hand, it is great to see you back working on ProGUI. I am using your library commercially for battleWarden (https://battlewarden.net/) and have been experiencing a few issues. For instance, setting the front color of the menu items does not work. Also, the lib is not DPI aware, and thus I had to implement my own fixes. Would have been great if you had fixed these bugs first.

BattleWarden looks great! I like the custom colours you've used on the menus! Yep unfortunately, I just didn't have any time to work on ProGUI however this might change now with the lockdown if there's enough interest.

Chris.

[GG]

Hi PrincieD,

Happy to see you again in this forum !

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown (and now being unemployed)

Sorry to hear this. I hope future will allow you to rebounce quickly.

I bought previous version licence 1.35 maybe some years ago (before 2012 I think).
Can't wait to test the new one

Thanks a lot for this release.

[PrincieD]

Hi PrincieD,

Happy to see you again in this forum !

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown (and now being unemployed)

Sorry to hear this. I hope future will allow you to rebounce quickly.

I bought previous version licence 1.35 maybe some years ago (before 2012 I think).
Can't wait to test the new one

Thanks a lot for this release.

Thanks GG, no worries I've sent an email to existing Gold/Platinum users with the updated source package, let me know if you haven't received it (quite a few email addresses bounced).

Chris.

[Bitblazer]

welcome back!
I would love to license progui but the offer on your website mentions i can license v 1.39 which includes minor updates. Obviously i want to license the upcoming v 2 and not the previous 1.x

Can you rephrase the license or change the website? I am aware that v 2.x might be many months away, but i want to avoid paying for 1.39 in may 2020 just to see v2 beeing released in june 2020 and not being able to use it even because "only minor updates" where included

[PrincieD]

welcome back!
I would love to license progui but the offer on your website mentions i can license v 1.39 which includes minor updates. Obviously i want to license the upcoming v 2 and not the previous 1.x

Can you rephrase the license or change the website? I am aware that v 2.x might be many months away, but i want to avoid paying for 1.39 in may 2020 just to see v2 beeing released in june 2020 and not being able to use it even because "only minor updates" where included

Hi Bitblazer,

The source is actually 1.40, I need to update that on the site. I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue development of V2, it depends on the interest (is this something that people still want) and it needs to be financially viable (I have rent and need to eat lol) as it still needs a lot of work. Blockers at the moment are trying to hook the toolbar/rebar common controls for diverted rendering (these controls are ancient and have had so much hacky functionality bolted on by MS over the years). My thoughts are to replace these 2 controls completely with ProGUI equivelents, which would half the size of ProGUI removing a ton of spaghetti owner draw code for toolbars/rebars and menus. My thoughts are if ProGUI V2 does come into fruitation then customers who have already bought Gold/Platinum licences would'nt have to pay to upgrade (which honours my previous commitments whilst making ProGUI affordable for new users during the pandemic).

Chris.

[X0r]

ProGUI could become financially viable, but I would more focus on what the customers/users really need. For instance, I would not put that much effort into diverted rendering (your provided example is flickering when scrolling, btw) but more focus on implementing other controls such as ribbon control, skinned PanelGadget, extended ListIconGadget etc.
Having implemented these controls, you could easily increase the price by a significant amount.

Maybe you might want to check out other UI libraries such as https://www.devexpress.com/

[Bitblazer]

I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue development of V2, it depends on the interest (is this something that people still want) and it needs to be financially viable (I have rent and need to eat lol) as it still needs a lot of work.

If you are willing to give it a try, i am willing to help by buying a license to support you. But i honestly don't know if there is enough interest in this project to make it financially worth it for you.
Maybe you should attempt to start a patreon project for proGUI V2. I see many of these kind of projects on patreon and believe me - some of them are in horrible alpha states

Patreon makes it possible to finance these kind of projects with progress and monthly status reports, while allowing a mutual communication platform for the developer and the people who fund the development to interact. You could set goals like a 2000 US$ goal to start fulltime development and a backer share of 20 US$ where every backer gets the resulting project.

Check out Patreon and consider using it

[PrincieD]

I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue development of V2, it depends on the interest (is this something that people still want) and it needs to be financially viable (I have rent and need to eat lol) as it still needs a lot of work.

If you are willing to give it a try, i am willing to help by buying a license to support you. But i honestly don't know if there is enough interest in this project to make it financially worth it for you.
Maybe you should attempt to start a patreon project for proGUI V2. I see many of these kind of projects on patreon and believe me - some of them are in horrible alpha states

Patreon makes it possible to finance these kind of projects with progress and monthly status reports, while allowing a mutual communication platform for the developer and the people who fund the development to interact. You could set goals like a 2000 US$ goal to start fulltime development and a backer share of 20 US$ where every backer gets the resulting project.

Check out Patreon and consider using it

That's actually a really good idea Bitblazer would anyone else be interested in this as an option?

[BarryG]

I've heard nothing but BAD news about Patreon. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Here's some quick Google results for "is patreon good".

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/business/patreon.html

https://au.trustpilot.com/review/www.patreon.com

https://theoutline.com/post/2571/no-one ... on-patreon

IMO it's better just to charge a fee like you've been doing. Cut out the (dodgy?) middle-man.

[PrincieD]

ProGUI could become financially viable, but I would more focus on what the customers/users really need. For instance, I would not put that much effort into diverted rendering (your provided example is flickering when scrolling, btw) but more focus on implementing other controls such as ribbon control, skinned PanelGadget, extended ListIconGadget etc.
Having implemented these controls, you could easily increase the price by a significant amount.

Maybe you might want to check out other UI libraries such as https://www.devexpress.com/

Hi mate I totally see where you're coming from. A ribbon control has been a priority for a while (good suggestion for the other controls too) and would be the first new control I add. However, I need to get that solid foundation/building block working first I think which is the PanelEx with diverted rendering. The PanelEx is the ProGUI equivelent of PureBasic's native Canvas gadget and many of the other ProGUI controls are built using PanelEx's. What's lacking at the moment with the Canvas gadget and PanelEx to a lesser extent is being able to host other child common controls (or third party controls) inside seamlessly without rendering/refresh/flickering issues. Once that's done then we're cooking! my hooking routines are still a bit flakey at the moment though and that's why when you run the ProGUI V2 example it flickers sometimes (I think a race condition might be stopping it from hooking one of the API calls properly) and other times it works fine (noticable when you hover the mouse over a scrollbar).

[PrincieD]

I've heard nothing but BAD news about Patreon. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Here's some quick Google results for "is patreon good".

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/business/patreon.html

https://au.trustpilot.com/review/www.patreon.com

https://theoutline.com/post/2571/no-one ... on-patreon

IMO it's better just to charge a fee like you've been doing. Cut out the (dodgy?) middle-man.

Ahh crap

[PrincieD]

I think this might be a bit more impressive I've whacked the WebBrowser gadget inside a PanelEx page with masked border slapped on top of the other controls. This shows the kind of power and versatility with compositing using diverted rendering. All of the controls are nested inside a main PanelEx page with auto-scroll enabled btw.